These Easy Halloween Cookies are so colorful and festive for the spooky holiday season, and they’re delicious too!
Soft and chewy chocolate cookies are packed with Halloween M&Ms and sprinkles and are a Halloween party favorite every year.
If you’re looking for a sweet treat for a Halloween party or a dessert for your family to enjoy before trick or treating, these easy Halloween cookies are perfect!
They’re colorful and fun, don’t require any fancy ingredients or decorating skills, and are soft and chewy with a bit of crunch from Halloween M&Ms.
Kids and adults love these easy Halloween cookies! Consider making a double batch so that you’ll have a couple left over for the next day.
Need more Halloween themed desserts for the big day? Try my spooky Halloween witch finger cookies, or make a batch of my delicious chocolate Halloween dirt cupcakes.
You will also love my candy corn dip and pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats!
The Easiest Halloween Cookies
There are plenty of Halloween cookie recipes out there that are super creative, extravagantly decorated with royal icing, or artfully sculpted into scary creatures.
This isn’t one of them! In fact, I specifically developed this Halloween recipe to be low effort, but with high visual interest.
My easy spooky cookies are a simple chocolate drop cookie recipe, similar to chocolate crinkle cookies. Brightly colored sprinkles and Halloween M&Ms give them the perfect amount of decoration without taking up too much of your time.
Easy Cookie Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make these fun chocolate cookies:
- Cocoa Powder: This is what gives these cookies their decadent chocolate flavor! Use higher-quality cocoa for best results.
- Butter: Be sure that your butter is softened all the way to room temperature before mixing up the cookie dough.
- Egg: You’ll also want to let the egg come to room temperature!
- Sugar: This recipe uses both granulated sugar and light brown sugar to give the cookies the best soft texture.
- Halloween M&Ms: Pick up a bag of these to add to your easy Halloween cookies. They should be easy to find pretty much everywhere in October.
- Sprinkles: If you can, find sprinkles in the same colors as the M&Ms.
- Candy Eyes: I call these optional, but I really think they make the cookies extra fun!
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How To Make Easy Halloween Cookies
Before you start, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats, and set them aside.
- Mix the Dry Ingredients: In a bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix the Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, or in the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Then mix in the egg and vanilla extract.
- Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Add the Mix-Ins: Add the M&M candies and sprinkles to the dough.
- Bake: Divide the cookie dough into balls using a medium-sized cookie scoop and place them on the prepared cookie sheets. Add extra candies and sprinkles to the top of each and press them in. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Cool: Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the trays for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tip!
Don’t overbake the cookies! These soft chocolate cookies are best when they are slightly underdone. They’re ready to come out of the oven when they have puffed up and the tops have slightly cracked.
Halloween Cookie Recipe Tips
- Avoid overmixing the cookie dough. Stop mixing as soon as the dry ingredients are incorporated. Overmixed cookie dough leads to dry cookies.
- Choose your own spooky decorations. Brightly colored Halloween M&Ms and sprinkles offer a gorgeous contrast to these cookies, and mini candy eyes are super fun! Other toppings and mix-ins will work too though. Try candy corn, white chocolate chips, or look for different shapes of festive sprinkles.
- Press in the toppings. To be sure that the extra candy and sprinkles stick to the cookies, give them a gentle press before baking. Don’t press so hard that you flatten the cookies, just enough to combine the ingredients.
- Make them extra dark. Look online for black cocoa powder. It has a super deep color that will make your cookies inky! You could also add a bit of black gel food coloring to the dough.
Storing Tips
After they are baked and cooled, you can keep these easy Halloween cookies in a well-sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
They are best when enjoyed within 1 or 2 days though. Keep reading if you need longer storage solutions! You can also freeze the cookies or the cookie dough.
Can You Freeze Chocolate Halloween Cookies?
You can freeze baked cookies for up to 1 month if you like, but for best results, I recommend freezing the dough unbaked. This way, the cookies will be freshly baked when you want them!
Scoop the cookies and roll them into balls, then place on a tray and freeze for 1-2 hours or until firm. Then transfer the dough balls to a freezer bag and store for up to 3 months. I suggest waiting to add the extra candy and sprinkles until you bake them.
You can bake the frozen dough balls directly from frozen. Just add a few extra minutes to the baking time.
How To Keep Cookies Soft
Try to eat these cookies right away after baking them, but if you just can’t, you might find that they dry out in a day or two.
To keep the cookies soft, or to soften them after they’ve become hard, place a piece of bread in the container. The bread will dry out, and the cookies will be soft and chewy again, like magic!
Easy Halloween Cookie Ideas
Try any of these spooky cookies and treats for your celebrations this year!
- Hocus Pocus Cookies
- Soft Monster Cookies
- Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
- Ghost Marshmallow Popcorn Balls
- Monster Halloween Snack Mix
- Frankenstein Peanut Butter Cookies
If you’re looking for a savory Halloween appetizer, try making Halloween Taco Dip!
These easy Halloween cookies are the perfect combination of fun, spooky, and delicious! Pin this recipe to save it, and share it with your friends who love baking for Halloween too.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Easy Halloween Cookies
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Hand mixer
- Cookie Sheets
- Medium cookie scoop, 1.5 tablespoons
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (150 g) all purpose flour
- ½ cup (50 g) cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 (113 g) stick unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (200 g) light brown sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup M&M candy plus extra for decorating
- ¼ cup sprinkles plus extra for decorating
- Candy eyes optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), or 160°C if you have a fan oven. And line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt). Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, and sugars for 3 minutes. Scrape off the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract, and mix again until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (do not overmix the dough).
- Add the M&M candies, and some sprinkles, and mix the dough with a spatula.
- Divide the cookie dough into 1.5 tablespoon-sized balls using a medium-sized cookie scoop (each around 30 grams) and place on the prepared baking sheets. Add a few extra M&M candies and sprinkles and press them in.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will puff up and have slightly cracked tops, make sure not to overbake them. Remove from the oven, and add candy eyes if using. Allow to cool for at 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes:
- Choose your own spooky decorations. Brightly colored Halloween M&Ms and sprinkles offer a gorgeous contrast to these cookies, and mini candy eyes are super fun! Other toppings and mix-ins will work too though. Try candy corn, white chocolate chips, or look for different shapes of festive sprinkles.
- Press in the toppings. To be sure that the extra candy and sprinkles stick to the cookies, give them a gentle press before baking.
- Make them extra dark. Look online for black cocoa powder. It has a super deep color that will make your cookies inky! You could also add a bit of black gel food coloring to the dough.
- Storage: Keep the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Make Ahead: Freeze unbaked cookie dough balls for up to 3 months. Bake as directed, adding a few extra minutes to the bake time.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
TC says
Not only were these adorable, but the cookies themselves were soft and flavorful. Perfect for a party.
Carol R says
Adorable! My kids love these and ask me to make them all the time. So easy!
Sha says
These cookies are a crowd favorite last Halloween party. They bursting with flavor and incredibly decadent. Glad everyone had fun!